New Year’s Eve is a special time for a wedding proposal, and Hilary Carver was adamant that hers was coming that night. But as the evening went on and no ring appeared, she became increasingly disappointed.

Little did she know, her partner had the ultimate surprise waiting for her.

Hilary, 36, had spent much of 2023 talking to her then boyfriend, David Carver, 40, about getting engaged. She knew he had looked at rings and spoken with her parents, so it was only a matter of time. Indeed, Hilary, from Arkansas, told Newsweek that she spent every holiday, celebration and weekend away that year “wondering if it would happen.”

By the time New Year’s Eve rolled around, it seemed like the final option for a proposal. David even made comments suggesting that Hilary should get her nails done, and they made reservations at her favorite restaurant. Unfortunately, as the clock struck midnight and they welcomed in the new year, David did not propose.

“I bought a special outfit, fully expecting it and nothing,” Hilary said. “I woke up the next day and started home on the commute (as we lived two-and-a-half hours apart at the time) feeling disappointed and downright confused.”

It certainly was not the start to 2024 that Hilary had hoped for. She went through old messages to see if she misread the signs and even drafted a text message to send to David, asking why he would “tease” her like that if he had no intention of proposing.

As it turned out, she was about to get the surprise of a lifetime.

Hilary pulled onto her driveway and saw that her front door was open. Following the initial panic that someone had broken in, she saw her two sons, Tom and Ben, holding up a sign that read, “Today is your last day as David’s girlfriend.”

The boys were also wearing matching Nike sweaters and sneakers. Meanwhile, one of Hilary’s friends, who happens to be a photographer, was standing on the driveway.

“I was confused because I had just left Dave two hours away at his home. Was he going to propose from afar?” she said.

“That’s when the boys told me to look in my bag because Dave had put a letter in there before I left (and his work phone so he could track my location and update my mom who had the boys). On my bed was a new pair of Nike shoes and a Nike sweater (matching the boys)."

Dave had Hilary’s mom transform the office room into a “memory lane walk,” featuring family photos, rose petals and candles. As she walked through the office space, the boys led her onto the back porch, where she found Dave waiting on one knee. To her surprise, he had been driving behind Hilary the entire journey.

“I always wanted it to be a surprise and let me tell you, I have never been so surprised,” Hilary told Newsweek. “My oldest son Tom (10 years old at the time) told David that his only stipulation was that they wanted to be there for the proposal. It was a complete and total surprise. He had to get creative and stay true to the one request the boys had: to be there.”

Following months of planning, the couple married on September 1, 2024.

Hilary will never forget the thoughtful proposal and loves reminiscing about how Dave surprised her. She shared footage of the emotional 24 hours from that New Years on Instagram (@goalbodybyhilary) and it amassed over 30,700 views at the time of writing.

To this day, Hilary says that Dave’s presence is “the best thing to happen” for her family.

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Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Charlotte Nisbet and Emma Lee-Sang